A candidly written memoir by Asiha Ashfaque of Grade 10 describes her experience at the recent Brain Bee competition.
On a bitter cold Wednesday, February 7th 2007, we made our way to the Brain Bee Competition. It was held at the World Trade Center, right by the scenic view of the sky-line in Manhattan, New York. There were a total of twenty eight schools participating in this prestigious event; Al-Iman high school was one of them.
Each school sent two participants to take part in this event; a total of fifty six contestants. Al-Iman school sent Suneela Chaudhary and me, two sophomores. We were chosen through an in-school initial brain bee round. Weeks and weeks of preparation all led up to this one event that would last about 3 hours. The anxiety and nerves (ha ha) were at an all-time high; we didn't have the stomachs to eat despite our mothers' warnings.
Upon arriving at the high-tech building, we were interviewed by a reporter on how we felt about the competition. Soon after, our competitors arrived and to our horrific realization, they were all seniors - making us the youngest ones there. This boosted our confidence about 0%. At about 5:30, the opening speeches began, as did the rules of the competition. Shortly after, the first round commenced. Each contestant had to answer 2 out 5 questions correct in order to pass onto the next round.
Everyone moved onto the second round in which we had to get 3 out of 5 questions correct. A few people were eliminated in that round and the remaining contestants went for the third and fourth round. When the fourth round came about, the majority of the competitors were elminated, having failed to answer the appropriate number of questions correctly.
Unfortunately, Suneela was one of the many. However, I prevailed on wards, getting every single question correct. The questions became much more difficult by the 7th round, which was the final round before determining the 3rd, 2nd and 1st place. In this round I had finally managed to incorrectly answer 4 out of 5 questions. She answered only 3.
Much to my disappointment, the questions in the final round determined who recieved the 3rd, 2nd and 1st place prizes.
